Alternative Energy for Homes

The trend towards homes supported by alternative energy sources, ranging from wind turbines and solar cell collection to hydrogen fuel cells and biomass gas, is one that needs to continue into the 21st century and beyond. We have a great need to be more energy independent, and not have to depend on providing fossil fuels from unstable countries that are often hostile to us and our interests. But even beyond this factor, we as individuals need to "get out of the network" and also stop having to rely so heavily on giant oil companies that lobby the government which, even though they are not really involved in a secret conspiracy, have the grip of people when it comes to heating their homes (and if not through oil, then heat is usually supplied by grid-driven electricity, other grips).

Alternative Energy for Homes

Like Remi Wilkinson, Senior Analyst with Carbon Free, placing it, it is undeniable that distributed generation growth will lead to the restructuring of the retail electricity market and generation, transmission and distribution infrastructure. Power providers may have to diversify their efforts to make up for lost income through the generation of micro-energy households. He refers to the conclusion by a group of British analysts, including himself, who call themselves Free Carbon. Carbon Free has studied a growing trend towards homes that use alternative energy in the UK and the West. This trend is driven by more government recommendations and sometimes supports alternative energy research and development, rising costs of oil and other fossil fuels, concerns about environmental degradation, and the desire to be energy independent. Carbon Free concludes that, assuming traditional energy prices remain at current or rising levels, microgeneration (meeting all one's home's energy needs by installing alternative energy technologies such as solar panels or wind turbines) will become a home energy supply what the internet becomes home communication and gathering data, and finally this will have a profound impact on the business of existing energy supply companies.

Carbon Free analysis also shows that energy companies themselves have plunged into the game and are trying to utilize microgeneration for their own benefit to open up new markets for themselves. Carbon Free cites the example of a power company (in the UK) reporting that they are seriously researching and developing ideas for new geothermal energy facilities, because these companies see geothermal energy production as a very profitable wave in the future. Another conclusion from Carbon Free is that solar energy hot water heating technology is an efficient technology to reduce the cost of heating home water in the long run, although it was initially quite expensive to install. However, solar power is not cost-effective for companies, because they need too much special piping to implement solar energy hot water heaters. Finally, Carbon Free tells us that installing wind turbines is an efficient way to reduce home electricity costs, while also becoming more independent. However, this is once again a very expensive thing to install, and companies will do well to start cutting their prices on these devices or they can find themselves losing market share.

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